Prof. Luigi Cavallo earned his Ph.D. in 1991 at the University of Naples. From 1994 to 2001 he was an assistant professor of industrial chemistry at the University of Naples. In 2002, he moved as associate professor of industrial chemistry to the University of Salerno. In 2011 he joined the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, where is serves as Professor of Chemistry. He learned DFT in the group directed by Tom Ziegler, University of Calgary, Canada. He has been recipient of the 2002 - 12th Edition of the Prize “Bright Future in Chemistry”, awarded by the Italian Association of Chemical Industries to young researchers, and of the 2015 – Ziegler-Natta Lectureship Award, by the German Chemical Society.

Understanding (and possibly solving) catalytic problems using the armory of tools known as computational chemistry is the main activity of Prof. Cavallo. His areas of interest range from homogeneous to heterogeneous catalysis, aiming at clarifying structure/function relationships in catalytic systems. His current interests focus on contributing to improve chemical solutions to match the energy and environmental requests of a sustainable society.